Samuel Torres has long moved through music performing, arranging, producing, and recording with a true “who’s who” across jazz, Latin pop, and classical circles. His collaborations read like a living archive of modern sound: Tito Puente, Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D’Rivera, Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea, Alejandro Sanz, Ricky Martin, Richard Bona, Lila Downs, Angélique Kidjo, Marc Anthony, Rubén Blades, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and Colombia’s own global icon, Shakira. Yet for all the star power surrounding his career, Torres’ artistry has never been about proximity to fame—it’s been about the discipline of craft, the courage of expression, and the constant search for the next honest note.
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That same range has carried him into the classical world as both composer and soloist, featured with orchestras including Berlin Symphoniker, City of London Sinfonia, the Cuban National Symphony, the Bogotá Philharmonic, Medellín Philharmonic, and the Cali Philharmonic. In 2019, Torres earned the Latin Grammy Award for Best Classical Record with Regreso—a landmark concerto for congas and symphony orchestra that didn’t simply place percussion at the center, but demanded it be heard as a full narrative voice. Add to that three New Jazz Works Grants from Chamber Music America and a 2nd-place finish at the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition (2000), and the picture becomes clear: Torres isn’t just a virtuoso—he’s a builder of new musical spaces.
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Now, he returns with Trio Libre, available worldwide May 1, 2026 via Blue Conga Music—an album that follows his tour-de-force A Dance For Birds with a striking shift in scale and intention. Where some artists respond to a turbulent world by going bigger, Torres goes closer. With Trio Libre, he deliberately chooses intimacy over expansion, shaping a sound that feels exposed in the best way—unprotected, immediate, and emotionally direct.
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At the heart of the project is a rare and delicate instrumentation: Carmen Staaf on piano, Felipe Fournier on vibraphone, and Torres on congas. It’s a combination that doesn’t hide behind density; it invites the listener into a quiet, intricate conversation where every breath matters and every strike carries weight. Torres describes the approach with characteristic clarity: “The exposed ensemble setting mirrors the emotional landscape of the central suite, We the People, which I conceived during a period of personal uncertainty, mainly due to current sociopolitical factors.” In that statement is the album’s pulse—music as reflection, music as witness, music as a way of naming what’s hard to hold.
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And even as Trio Libre speaks to the present, it also nods to the timeless. The first single, “J.S. Bach: Duet No. 1 in E minor, BWV 802,” is out now—an early signal that Torres is once again bridging worlds, not as a stylistic trick, but as a genuine philosophy. In his hands, tradition isn’t a museum piece; it’s a living material—reframed, re-voiced, and made urgent.
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Samuel Torres Trio Photos by Krystal Pagan, courtesy of Red Cat Publicity
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